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| Happy holidays: life after teaching David Chidgey Click here for a print version of this article. You may think that Ofsted is round the twist, but try understanding the bureaucracy formally know as Defra! We decided to take our nanny goats up to Five Lanes to meet the billy. Defra requires a movement order for the journey up (20 mins) and another movement order for the journey down (40 minutes – the jockey wheel on the trailer came loose so we had to improvise with brute force and bailer twine). The act of impregnation took less that 4 minutes, and Leo had three goes (Leo is the billy I hasten to add) just to make sure. The annoying thing was that he was only interested in Whey (nanny one) and we had to take Curds (nanny two) back three days later – two more sets of movement forms. So is there life after teaching? I left teaching three years ago after 34 years of working with young people and leading colleagues forward in their understanding of the rigours of classroom management. The sudden realisation that health is more important than wealth hit hard after a heart attack and severe depression brought on by battle fatigue. And what do I do now? The day usually starts thinking about which day of the week it is (only to make sure we haven't got an appointment with the vet) – time here in Cornwall is relative to the light available, watches are somewhere in the house but we really aren't sure (or bothered) just where. The animals are our first priority: goats to feed in their stable before leading them out to the paddock where they have a pile of logs to climb on and a fence to get their heads stuck in; ducks to be let out of their house in a wild gaggle of clacking and wing stretching; chickens to be released clucking and pecking at our wellies; pigs to feed – they really are hilarious as they run up the hill to get their food. If you think Year 9 are hard to handle, try getting into a pig enclosure where you will be mugged by pig and pig (notice the lack of names – they are set to be dispatched quite soon) as they try to get their food before you are able to put it down. But, and oh such a big but, they adore having their heads scratched (can't quite remember any of my Year 9 wanting that), almost going into an ecstatic trance the harder you scratch. Then collecting the eggs - the ducks usually lay in the corner of their house and the hens in their nest boxes. We often think about what next. How well I remember new initiatives in education which came to little, but I now look at the next opportunity available to us with delight. Senara (a neighbour) has offered us Aylesbury ducks for meat together with quail for eggs - the quail come with warnings about their propensity to emulate the antics of the Coliditz inmates so housing and fencing is a serious consideration. The problem is do we go for chickens (food = 135g a day), ducks (food = 150g a day) or quail (food = 150g a week)? Decisions, decisions. And what about the dogs? In a moment of madness we ended up with five dogs, Rabbit, Pheasant, Newtpole, Lobster and Yeti (don't ask). We have real problems with all five. They either lie in front of the Rayburn, occasionally swapping position as they become too hot, or dominate the front room in front of the wood burner. Try cooking and stepping over bodies - and before you say anything, yes we are softies, and no we won't move the dogs. Books as usual dominate our lives. Just the other day I went onto Amazon looking for books on goats and they said, “if you like this, you will also like 'Teaching and Managing in Schools: The Next Step (Leadership Skills in Education Management)'”. Rather a strange connection. So is there life after teaching? There certainly is. Our days revolve around animals, poly-tunnels, dogs lurking in the kitchen when Yorkshire puddings are in the Rayburn, trees which need felling and Cornish moorland to walk on. Our evenings are spent planning the next stage in the development of our life and falling asleep listening to the Archers, suddenly remembering that we have forgotten to put the ducks and chickens away – the fox is desperate for an opportunistic evening meal. Relaxed Ltd designed and maintain the NET website. David now works as a director of Relaxed Ltd, a web design company which specialise in building and managing web sites for schools, though he spends most of his time building dove cots, pig arks and field shelters for goats together with taking the dogs out for a walk. It's a hard life! You can follow our blog at www.relaxed.ltd.uk/lamorna/01.html |
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